Purple Hands Winery

Purple Hands Winery Profile and History

Purple Hands is owned and operated by Cody Wright and his wife, Marque Wright. Purple Hands is a second-generation winery. Cody's father is Ken of Ken Wright Cellars and his mother is Corby of ROCO Winery. Cody and his brother, Carson, grew up in the winery and vineyards with their father, Ken. Cody graduated from University of Oregon with an Environmental Science degree looking for his fit in agr iculture. He could put up the fight no longer and once graduating in 2003 at 23 years old he jumped at the chance to start making wine full time again after collage and jumped into vintage at Argyle Winery. Upon finishing up vintage at Argyle Winery with all his "mates", Cody traveled to Australia to make big red and white wines with Knappstein Winery in Claire Valley, South Australia. After living and traveling for nearly a year in Australia, Cody came home to the states to take an Assistant Winemaker/Vineyard Management position with his father at Ken Wright Cellars. During this time at KWC he had the chance to go abroad again and make wine with some dear family friends of the Wrights, AtarangiWinery.com in Martinborogh, New Zealand. In 2009, Corby Stonebraker-Soles and Rollin Soles built ROCO Winery and Cody left KWC to assist Corby and Rollin in the winemaking and management of the newly built ROCO facility. Purple Hands started in 2005 with just 250 cases. Being part of so many masters and pioneers of winemaking, Cody felt it fitting to search for his own expression of style and creation. The name Purple Hands comes from Cody's life of growing up doing all of the grunt work in the wineries. At the end of all those days, the only true constant of day-in and day-out winery work were Cody's purple, wine-stained hands. The Purple Hands name was also inspired by a photo of Ken Wright and Mike Etzel of Beaux Frres winery. The black and white photo sat on Ken's desk in the winery as Cody grew up. The photo showed Ken and Mike both in suits standing side by side at a formal event, their opposing hands were holding ...